SANJEEV KUMAR JAIN Vs. RAGHUBIR SARAN CHARITABLE TRUST

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By these orders I shall dispose of an application filed by the Plaintiff praying for issuance of an ad interim injunction in the suit for permanent, prohibitory and mandatory injunction. Briefly stated the Plaintiff was the tenant in respect of the Mezzanine Floor of 11-E, Connaught Circus, Connaught Place, New Delhi which tenancy had been created in 1970. In 1986 the Plaintiff entered into a lease in respect of the First Floor bearing municipal No.E-37 Connaught Circus, Connaught Place, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the `suit premises'). In this manner the Plaintiff became the tenant of both the floors. A suit for eviction in respect of the Mezzanine Floor was filed by the Defendant in the year 2000 which suit has already been decreed. The Plaintiff has been evicted from the premises through the Court Bailiff. This suit, therefore, concerns the First Floor premises, and has been filed on 30th December, 2000 which is a fortnight after the aforementioned eviction of the Plaintiff from the Mezzanine Floor. An ex parte ad interim injunction had been granted on 30.12.2003 interdicting "the Defendants from obstructing or preventing access of the Plaintiff, his representatives and customers to the showroom in the first floor through the staircase leading to the opening on the inner circle and leading to the mezzanine shop and first floor delineated in Annexure A and B."

(2.) The suit premises has been let out for a term of five years from 1.7.1986 by a Lease Deed of that date. There is no specific mention in the Lease Deed as to the mode of ingress and egress to the suit premises. However, in the plan annexed to the Lease the rear staircase has been shown albeit not as a part of the suit premises.

(3.) It is the admitted case of the parties that on 4.7.1986 the Plaintiff sought permission from the Defendants to carry out additions/alterations in the suit premises as well as the Mezzanine Floor by means of two letters of that very date. Interestingly the letter pertaining to the suit premises makes no mention of the front staircase or that from the Mezzanine to the First Floor, use of which has been claimed in these proceedings. This subject has been dealt with in the letter in which reference to the Mezzanine Floor has been made. It reads as follows: 4th July, 2004 Shri Raghubir Saran Charitable Trust, 40-42, Janpath, New Delhi. Dear Sir, Sub: PERMISSION UNDER CLAUSE 4 OF THE LEASE DEED DATED 1ST JULY, 1986 ______________________________________ The undersigned is a tenant of Shop No.11-E (Mezzanine Floor) forming part of your building situated on Units Nos. 13 to 29, Block-E, Circus-D, Connaught Place, New Delhi on a monthly rental of Rs.2,500/- per month. There is a stair case abutting inner circle of Connaught Place, New Delhi that stair case leads; upto the Mezzanine Floor over and above 11-E, Connaught Place, New Delhi. I seek your permission to provide an additional internal staircase leading from Mezzanine of Shop 11-E to first floor, Flat No.4, Mpl No.37-E, the tenancy of which also is in the name of the undersigned. I, the undersigned assure you to fulfill the following conditions:-